In a world filled with turmoil and chaos, there is at least one thing we can always count on. Namely, the editorial board of the New York Times. Whatever the issue, whatever the crisis, the paper's "thinkers" are absolutely certain to spout the most conventional of conventional liberal wisdom.
This week, as always, the Times did not disappoint. "The besieged border is a myth," its editorial declared, "and the arrival of a few thousand weary refugee children on buses does not make the myth true."
Apparently the tens of thousands of children living in makeshift camps are merely a mirage. And the Border Patrol agents are evidently lying when they lament that things are completely out of control. After all, who are you going to believe? An editorial writer living on Manhattan's Upper West Side, or the lying eyes of people who are actually at the border trying to help tens of thousands of desperate kids?
The Times also describes the illegal aliens as "refugees," thereby implying that they are leaving their homes in Central America to escape violence and the threat of death.
But a far more honest assessment of the situation comes from Fox News intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge, who has revealed the findings of a report assembled by U.S. authorities at the border. Agents interviewed 230 immigrants who had recently crossed the Rio Grande. 219 of them - 95%! - said their main reason for coming to the USA was their expectation that unaccompanied children will be allowed to stay.
These poor children and their parents are well aware that the United States under President Obama is not likely to deport them. The numbers bear that out: In 2008, President Bush's final year in office, more than 8,000 children were sent home to their native countries; last year fewer than 1,700 were returned. Obviously, parents in El Salvador and Guatemala and Honduras can read the tea leaves - paying a smuggler to get their child to Texas is a pretty good bet.
Something else very interesting happened this week. When mostly white folks in Murrieta, California protested against illegal immigrants being housed in their town, it was easy for liberal outlets to mock them as nativists and Neanderthals. But now there are also protests in mostly black precincts, where locals complain about the billions being spent on foreign children. Meanwhile, comedian Paul Rodriguez, who came here legally from Mexico, shocked a host on CNN when he urged the feds to return the kids to their countries. It does not fit the left-wing playbook when American minorities protest the influx of illegal immigrants.
This entire crisis belongs squarely to President Obama. Just as he should have seen the coming of a terrorist state in the Middle East, he and his advisors should have known that this border crisis was on the southern horizon. There were plenty of warnings from Texas Governor Rick Perry and many others.
So now, while the president vacations, tees it up, and raises millions from fat-cat Democratic donors, we are faced with a bizarre and tragic situation. The federal government is flying frightened and lonely children to various states without even notifying the governors of those states. Legal analysts Kimberly Guilfoyle and Lis Wiehl report that the feds are acting within the law. But forget the law for a moment, what about decency and cooperation? Shouldn't the governors of Iowa and Nebraska be informed that hundreds of children are being settled in their states?
The Central American children must be treated with decency and respect during their time in America, but their stay here should be as brief as possible. President Obama must let Central Americans know that entering the United States illegally will lead to a return trip, post haste.
Democratic Congressman John Lewis sent out this message the other day: "This is America. Our doors are open." No, Congressman, our doors are not open, no more than the doors to your house are open. We expect visitors from other countries to do the right thing. Before barging in and expecting to be housed and fed, they should try knocking first. Just as they would be expected to do at Mr. Lewis's home, or at the swanky townhouse of any of those loons on the New York Times editorial board.
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